Bishops Urge Synod Cease-fire

November 13, 1985|By Bruce Buursma, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — The nation`s Roman Catholic bishops called Tuesday for a quelling of the heated rhetoric and ``paranoia`` that have emerged over the forthcoming worldwide Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, a special session that will assess the reforms of the landmark Second Vatican Council.

``We should allay all this paranoia that`s going around,`` said Bishop Norbert F. Gaughan of Gary. ``The language we`re using is politicized. We should do what we can to lower the level of hostility and go back to civil and courteous dialogue.``

The bishop`s plea followed a formal report to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops by the group`s president, Bishop James W. Malone of Youngstown, Ohio, the chief U.S. delegate to the Nov. 24-Dec. 8 synod gathering in Rome.

Bishop Malone, who earlier this fall issued a report hailing the impact of the Second Vatican Council`s reforms on the U.S. church, said he would

``stand by my judgment`` despite criticism he has received for adopting an

``optimistic tone.``

The prelate acknowledged that some Vatican officials, including Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, have expressed a less benign view of the results of Vatican II.

``Not everything has gone as well as we might have hoped,`` he conceded. But he contended that the deepest need in the church is for ``renewed, serious efforts`` to implement the changes wrought by the council.

``We have only begun to tap its riches,`` Bishop Malone said.

Since the papal directive for a special synod was issued earlier this year, liberal Catholic activists have voiced fears that the meeting could bring to a close a period of liturgical innovations and wide church involvement in social affairs, trends encouraged by the council during its deliberations in 1962-1965.

Conservative Catholics in the U.S. have expressed hope that the synod will curb the era of experimentation in the church, characterizing the